RMCNews with Kim Dallum – Arvada, Colorado … The Arvada Seventh-day Adventist Church in Arvada, Colorado, has long been a church of service from weekly food preparation for a women’s shelter, monthly food donations to the Salvation Army Crossroads Center* in Denver, Colorado, international service mission trips, and even filling and sending a large commercial shipping container of donated household goods to Africa.
Some time ago, when asked about the efforts of the outreach ministries at Arvada Church, lead pastor Gordon Anic commented, “[These programs] are part of our church’s mission to alleviate suffering, both far and near.”
One of the most recent outreach ministries for the church is providing lunch service for a local homeschool program that provides peer interaction and additional instruction for children kindergarten through twelfth grade. This service project began this school year when Anic became aware that several of the students in the program suffered food insecurities at home and were not bringing lunch with them to the days that the program was being held in the church’s now closed on-site school facilities.
Leading this outreach is Kim Dallum, church member and ministry leader. Dallum, along with help from fellow church member Linda Barron, cook and serve a hot meal for up to 30 students every Monday the program is active and prepares food for the following Wednesday for the program directors to serve.
Dallum had remarked that they were originally only serving students who did not come with lunch. As food service continued, she noticed that more and more students began coming without lunch, attributing that to the likelihood that they were wanting to eat the delicious meals that were being served. After awareness of this, they decided to just serve all students in the program.
Dallum, a former nurse, now trains nurse assistants working in senior care facilities, prisons, and similar institutions on medicine administration. She began serving in outreach ministries in 2015 when she joined the Arvada Church, and is a leader with the church’s homeless ministry, Street Beat.
When Dallum first began volunteering with the Street Beat ministry, she would bake and serve chocolate chip cookies for the people that would come for a warm meal. She noticed that the cookies were a crowd favorite, reflecting that she thought they were so popular as they, “reminded them of better times.”
* Salvation Army Crossroads Center is not affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church nor the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
—RMCNews and Kim Dallum. Kim Dallum heads the Street Beat and Medical ministries at Arvada Adventist Church. Photo by Liz Kirkland.
